Every year, when I return from Karachi in the winter, along with memories of time spent with loved ones, there are other nuances and sensations that go deeper. Two are the most memorable. First, drifting off to a nap after a simple home-cooked meal with the sounds of the city around me, chirping, cawing, faint sounds…

We adopted our boy, Nael, at birth in 2011. My husband and I had led our lives until then in a carefree, almost irreverent disregard for the traditional. Nevertheless, I had a very strong maternal instinct, and he a nurturing nature, and we knew that we wanted a big family, eventually. Once we decided to…